Bioplastic Manufactured By Biodegradable Resource Materials

The plastic materials which are manufactured by taking renewable resources as a raw material (e.g. corn) are more preferable than other conventional materials. The best thing about such type of resource materials is that they are biodegradable. 
Researchers always remained involved in studies about making comparative analysis for different resource materials regarding their environmental and commercial benefits. These studies gave information that such type of resource materials are having additional advantage of producing lesser amount of greenhouse gases as compared to other petroleum-based plastic materials being manufactured nowadays.
The research work is going on at University of Hawaii, Honolulu. Jain Yu and Lilian Chen are the two major research scientists doing work on this phenomenon. They produced a bioplastic named “polyhydroxyalkanoates” – PHA - and studied rate of greenhouse gas emissions. They made this plastic by bacteria by growing it on corn-based sugar.
During commercial manufacturing of ethanol through stalks and leaves of corn plants, waste material is obtained as a left over. These two scientists worked on producing PHA plastic from that waste material. It will be a new thing in commercial production.
These two scientists measured an amount of CO2 emitted from different type of materials including chemicals, fertilizers and fuels and emissions given out by their process to compare them with each other. CO2 is generated from two ways during its production. This includes fermentation process and energy combustion. This analysis doesn’t include CO2 emitted from energy part.
As a result of this comparative analysis, these two scientists told that in a production of one pound PHA, approximately .49 pounds of CO2 is generated whereas same amount of conventional plastic produces two to three pounds of CO2. The difference is very great. It will be very positive for environment. Another plastic material with the name of Polylactide (PLA) is being produced in Minnesota-based NatureWorks, LLC. They are producing it commercially. That production is said to generate .27 pounds of CO2/1 pound plastic.
Erwin Vink told that they worked on all the places from where greenhouse gases are being emitted. They came to know that biggest portion of CO2 is being generated through fermentation process whereas electricity is the second to contribute to it in a major amount. This new development will not only be beneficial for environmental reasons but it will also do a great job economically.